Crucifixion

By Phil Ochs

Em D
And the night comes again to the circle studded sky
G Bm
The stars settle slowly, in loneliness they lie
Am D G Em
'Till the universe explodes as a falling star is raised
Am D G Em
Planets are paralyzed, mountains are amazed
Am D G Em
But they all glow brighter from the brilliance of the blaze
Am D Em
With the speed of insanity, then he dies.
In the green fields a turnin', a baby is born
His cries crease the wind and mingle with the morn
An assault upon the order, the changing of the guard
Chosen for a challenge that is hopelessly hard
And the only single sound is the sighing of the stars
But to the silence of distance they are sworn
Em C D
So dance dance dance
Em
Teach us to be true
C
Come dance dance dance
D Em
'Cause we love you
Images of innocence charge him go on
But the decadence of destiny is looking for a pawn
To a nightmare of knowledge he opens up the gate
And a blinding revelation is laid upon his plate
That beneath the greatest love is a hurricane of hate
And God help the critic of the dawn.
So he stands on the sea and shouts to the shore,
But the louder that he screams the longer he's ignored
For the wine of oblivion is drunk to the dregs
And the merchants of the masses almost have to be begged
'Till the giant is aware, someone's pulling at his leg,
And someone is tapping at the door.
To dance dance dance
Teach us to be true
Come dance dance dance
'Cause we love you
Then his message gathers meaning and it spreads across the land
The rewarding of his pain is the following of the man
But ignorance is everywhere and people have their way
Success is an enemy to the losers of the day
In the shadows of the churches, who knows what they pray
For blood is the language of the band.
The Spanish bulls are beaten; the crowd is soon beguiled,
The matador is beautiful, a symphony of style
Excitement is estatic, passion places bets
Gracefully he bows to ovations that he gets
But the hands that are applauding are slippery with sweat
And saliva is falling from their smiles
So dance dance dance
Teach us to be true
Come dance dance dance
'Cause we love you
Then this overflow of life is crushed into a liar
The gentle soul is ripped apart and tossed into the fire.
First a smile of rejection at the nearness of the night
Truth becomes a tragedy limping from the light
All the (canons|heavens) are horrified, they stagger from the sight
As the cross is trembling with desire.
They say they can't believe it, it's a sacreligious shame
Now, who would want to hurt such a hero of the game?
But you know I predicted it; I knew he had to fall
How did it happen? I hope his suffering was small.
Tell me every detail, for I've got to know it all,
And do you have a picture of the pain?
So dance dance dance
Teach us to be true
Come dance dance dance
'Cause we love you
Time takes her toll and the memory fades
but his glory is broken, in the magic that he made.
Reality is ruined; it's the freeing from the fear
The drama is distorted, to what they want to hear
Swimming in their sorrow, in the twisting of a tear
As they wait for a new thrill parade.
The eyes of the rebel have been branded by the blind
To the safety of sterility, the threat has been refined
The child was created to the slaughterhouse he's led
So good to be alive when the eulogy is read
The climax of emotion, the worship of the dead
And the cycle of sacrifice unwinds.
So dance dance dance
Teach us to be true
Come dance dance dance
'Cause we love you
And the night comes again to the circle studded sky
The stars settle slowly, in loneliness they lie
'Till the universe expodes as a falling star is raised
Planets are paralyzed, mountains are amazed
But they all glow brighter from the briliance of the blaze
With the speed of insanity, then he died.

Notes:

Chords supplied by tonmaas@xs4all.nl (Ton Maas) and James Barnett.

This is one of Phil's two songs about the late John F. Kennedy
(although in his intro on the
There and Now - Live in Vancouver 1968
album he extended it to Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther
King, and to ``hero killing'' in general),
the other song being
That Was The President.
Phil was also quoted (on 15-Dec-1965) as saying this about the song:
"It's a song
about Christ-killing, how all America and even, especially, New York loves
to create heroes to moralize to them and then kill them violently, bloodily
and dig the death so much, every detail of the death. It's a song about
Jesus Christ. It's called The Crucifixion. It's a song about Kennedy. And
maybe a song about Dylan."
(In an interview a few months earlier, Phil expressed the belief that it
would soon be too dangerous for Dylan to play out in public because he had
become one of those heroes.)

Christian Bartolf says that this song
``has been translated into German language by Walter Mossmann:
The "Gorleben-Song" became the hymn of the civil disobedience
movement against plutonium industry beginning of the Eighties.
There was an influence of non-violent resistance against nuclear
industry: Wyhl (Germany) - Seabrook (New Hampshire) - Gorleben
(Germany). Walter Mossmann started to sing his political folk songs
in Wyhl (Germany) during the Seventies.